The present invention relates to apparatus for assisting persons in learning how to swim and how to use aquatic exercises for physical therapy and rehabilitation, and especially relates to flotation apparatus for those purposes.
It is well-known in modern swimming facilities such as swimming pools that the pools typically have a deep end and a shallow end. In pools used for competition swimming in particular, the shallow end is most often deep enough to allow swimmers to perform racing dives and competition turns, while the deep end is generally deep enough to permit competitive diving from spring diving boards above the pool. Frequently the shallow ends will be at least 3 feet from a pool bottom to a surface of water in the pool, while the deep ends will be 10 feet or greater.
When such pools are not being used for competition, it is common that they are used for both training young swimmers and for therapeutic or rehabilitative exercises for elderly or injured persons, such as the elderly overcoming hip fractures, strokes, etc. In fact, it is increasingly common for aquatic "aerobic" type exercise programs to be utilized for general conditioning without swimming (e.g., walking rapidly back and forth in a shallow end of the pool) because of the favorable impact on hip, knee and ankle joints, and the low probability of incurring injury to those joints during such exercise programs. Arthritis victims, and those recovering from injury may gain substantial cardiovascular--respiratory benefit from such aquatic exercise/therapy, non-swimming programs through vigorous movement of their arms and legs against the natural resistance of the water. Some persons utilizing aquatic therapy especially after substantial loss of leg function from for example a stroke or hip, knee, or ankle surgery are severely limited in the amount of stress their legs may withstand. Those persons may obtain valuable conditioning through use of their arms and gradual use of their legs while in a pool. However, they typically need an underwater support chair or overhead sling for an initial sitting type of position, or they require personal assistance for movement in the pool, until their legs have been rehabilitated to the point of being able to support them in an upright position in the water.
Training of young swimmers in pools having shallow and deep ends is increasingly popular amongst very young persons. It is not uncommon in modern American swim training programs to teach persons as young as 3-4 years old the fundamentals of stroke technique, as well as to accustom them to overcome a natural fear of the water. Infant swim-training programs are even known, wherein some children are taught to swim soon after they learn to walk.
A significant limitation on such young persons swim training programs and non-swimming aquatic therapy programs is that only a very limited portion of a pool having a deep end and a shallow end is available for the programs. Those portions of the pool over several feet, typically more than one-half of the pool, cannot be utilized for non-swimming aquatic therapy or young persons programs. Some modern pools are structured to have no "deep end" for diving, and have a uniform depth for swim training. However, such uniform-depth pools are designed to have typically about 4 feet from a pool bottom to a surface of the water, and that depth presents challenges to training very young swimmers that may be insecure where they have difficulty standing on the bottom with their heads well above the water. Even swimming pools with shallow ends of about 3 feet present security and training problems to very small swimmers. Such swimmers feel insecure where their heads are barely above the surface of the water, and those pools do not provide a stable support surface within the pool that enables such small swimmers to comfortably commence a swimming stroke.
Efforts to accommodate more small, young swimmers and/or more non-swimming aquatic therapy participants in known swimming pools include use of flotation apparatus such as "kick boards", or inflatable flotation devices. Both such apparatus, however, limit a person's ability to use their arms naturally, and therefore are a handicap in learning stroke technique. Additionally, those apparatus do not assist young swimmers in overcoming a fear of the water, as they become dependent upon the flotation apparatus. In pond or beach-front "camp" style swim areas, it is know to use raft, or wharf type structures that provide a standing or support surface at or near the surface of the water. Such structures have no practical utility within a pool environment, however, because they are not known to be readily removable or adaptable for practical storage while the pool is being utilized for competition swimming or diving.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus that both enhances training of young swimmers and also assists persons performing non-swimming aquatic therapy within swimming pools or other swim training types of facilities.